This invention relates generally to devices for removing tobacco leaves or other leaves from the associated stalk upon which the leaf grows.
The resinous nature of the tobacco plant and hirsute nature makes the manual processing of the tobacco leaves an arduous task. More recently, however, buyers of tobacco have come to expect that the leaves be segregated by sorting, since the top most portion of the plant represents a finer product than either the middle portion or the lowermost portion thereof. Thus, for tobacco farmers to obtain the best price for their product, it is incumbent upon someone to separate the leaves from the stalk in such a manner that the grade that tobacco buyers demand are readily available so as to increase the profit earnings of the farmer.
Heretofore, known prior art exists for removing sections of a plant while growing so that leaves which ripen earlier than others on the stalk can be sequentially harvested and therefore sold already graded.
The following citations reflect the state-of-the-art of which applicant is aware insofar as these patents appear to be germane to the patent process:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,564,614, C. L. Sowers, Aug. 14, 1951; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,137, W. R. Long, Sept. 10, 1974; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,850, B. G. Moore, June 15, 1976; PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,510, H. Griner et al., Dec. 4, 1979. PA1 "Strip Master" Tobacco Equipment Co., Inc. PA1 "Mechanical Tobacco Stripper" C. G. Dickenson, Distributor PA1 "Tobacco Leaf Stripper" Sperry New Holland, printed 1981.
Three advertising brochures, also reflecting the state-of-the-art are identified as follows:
The patent to Moore and the patent to Long both teach the use of rotating blades which impact the leaves of the tobacco plant and thereby strip them from the plant. The patent to Griner et al. teaches the use of a similar apparatus where only the blades are hydraulically driven and coordinated with an endless belt. Moreover, these devices are only suitable for utilization in the field, which presents a coompletely different consideration than that which the instant application is directed to, since the instant application is used in stripping the tobacco once the stalks have been taken from the field and suitably cured.
The hereinabove mentioned three brochures show the state-of-the-art further demonstrate with manifest clarity that all of these machines are constrained to operate with manual separation after the stalk has had the leaves removed therefrom. Thus, the stripping operation occurs in one stage and manual sorting is required which can be seen to be labor intensive. Moreover, the specific stripper structure in the instant application cleans more of the tobacco leaves off of the plants than the prior art devices would suggest.
It should be apparent that all of the citations are substantially more complex than the structure according to the instant application, and none of these structures lends itself to the facile removal of the leaves from the stalk all at one time in such a manner that the leaves are automatically sorted and graded in one stripping operation, thereby reducing to a large extent the amount of work required by the person performing the stripping, and simultaneously reducing to a large extent the degree of manual contact that is required in performing the stripping operation.
It is evident that the instant application is distinguished over the known prior art by providing a mechanism which simultaneously strips and grades the leaves associated with the stalk in one operation which is of substantially straightforward mechanical design and therefore is reliable in service, a hallmark of good engineering, and provides the expeditious removal of leaves from the stalk in one simple operation.
Thus, an instrumentality has been provided which not only strips the tobacco leaves or the like from its associated stalk but also simultaneously grades the leaves by providing a support structure for the stalk which includes a plurality of adjustably mounted grading instrumentalities disposed on a stalk support instrumentality, the grading instrumentality serves as a plurality of partitions which segregate portions of the leaves on the stalk, and a stripping instrumentality adjacent one end of the stalk adapted to engage the stalk and pass same through a mechanism which advances the stalk automatically so that the leaves are retained on one side of the stripping instrumentality while the stalk itself passes therethrough and the leaves which are left behind are maintained segregated into different quality grades which provide for the farmer the most attractive price and provides for the buyer tobacco which has been reliably graded and therefore of greater value.